Customer Reviews

Kell's Legend: The Clockwork Vampire Chronicles, Book 1

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you're a fan of old-school pulp fiction barbarian heroes with excessive hyphenation and Incredible Numbers of Significant Initial Capitals, then you'll doubtless love this book.

I'm not, however, so the excessively purple prose conjoined with abrupt diversion into crude cursing was somewhat distracting; the oddly detailed rape scenes were slightly unpleasant (why Mr. Remic felt the need to inform me as to the exact qualities of the villain's equipment is a mystery I feel no wish to investigate); and the characterization was somewhat erratic.

The titular Kell (whose legend is helpfully related at the back of the book) appears to be a faux-scots barbarian who, once he gets over his angst (which takes the better part of a page at the front of each battle), is spectacularly effective at cleaving villainous types--nearly always "albino" in nature; I think that, despite the vast numbers of ways that he has found to describe a villain ravishing a female protagonist, Mr. Remic's thesaurus contains no synonyms for "colorless" or "lacking melanin"--with his sentient and apparently invariably butterfly-bladed battleaxe.

The plot appears driven by the invasion of the subtitular "clockwork vampires;" creatures of grafted flesh and machine--and to Mr. Remic's credit, the concept is rather interesting; in some respects it's reminiscent of the plague victims in S. M. Peters' "Whitechapel Gods." These creatures require "blood-oil" (if you wish to read this book, please get acquainted with that phrase; it appears on more pages than the protagonist) to sustain their functions, and live in oppressive symbiosis with the aformentioned "albino" warriors and some rather nightmare-fuelish "Harvesters."

The female characters come out rather badly treated; one, in particular, is given a rather promising backstory only to fall victim to a random act of violence late in the book. It's rather discouraging, on the whole.

The world-building is accomplished fairly well; the setting seems to have been carefully thought out, with plenty of room for expansion for future books in the series. Individual parts, though, are of varying quality; I half-suspect that some venues were chosen more for atmosphere than for any sort of effective urban planning.

The plot, sadly, is full of missed opportunities; there are many promising threads that are quickly snuffed out or cut off just as they begin to show promise in favor of an apparent desire to keep strictly to a single narrative, that of an irresistable invading army with a few epic heroes who are destined to deus-ex-machina their way into history.

The best that I can say is that Mr. Remic is very aware of his fantasy tropes, and uses them appropriately for his intended venue. There's the obvious Epic Hero, his Beautiful (grand-)Daughter, the Atoning Sidekick, the Evil Villain at the head of the Ominously Named Army...etc. If you happen to be a fan of this sort of ten-cents-a-page writing, then you'll probably enjoy Kell's Legend--if not, find something else with fewer hyphens.

It is not your typical sword & magic story; the story has more than one main character, so do not be put off by the title, even though as a main character the hero will certainly shock the readers expecting a young and inexperienced character.
I found it refreshing that the hero does not have to be trained in what he has to do; this does not make the quest any easier, and the turns ans twist in the story keeps it entertaining. Cyborg-vampires are certainly different from all other forms of fantasy books. The story has armies, battles, the odds are certainly against the hero, so it is a book that keeps you guessing what will happen; yet you are not able to second guess it. A good read.

Kells Legend follows 4 weary people escaping from a cowardice attack on their town. Two are young university girls, one of their grandfather who happens to be a legend, and a thief who used to be more.They narrowly escape a Harvestor who is so upset that he sends a canker. Both of these villanous beings are working with the vachine clockwork vampire Graal who plans to over take this kingdom and make them his cattle to harvest their blood.

The story begins nicely enough with a retired war hero trying to feed his granddaughter soup and keep her focused on going to university. Then, everything picks up speed and you barrel through this story from one magnificent fight to another. With no breathing room really in between because as the stories twist and turn and more characters re introduced, you don't know who to trust. They make it to the big battle and things start heating up, getting intense, and you feel satisfaction coming. Except then, it just is overrun by the villians, Kell and Saark try to escape to save his granddaughter, and then it ends...almost mid sentence it seems.

I know, this is Book 1, which means there will be a 2. Still, there was no closure to virtually anything. Everyone, literally, is left hanging from cliffs while you have to wait for the next book to be released. It is well written and the action is nice. The new twist of the vampire as well as the other creatures in this text keeps you biting your nails and turning pages. Overall, I did like it. It was difficult to understand when some of the new story lines were introduced, but the characters are great and I like almost all of them. My problem is that when reading the next one, I will have to remember all the plot lines left open from this one since nothing was resolved. Still, it is a good read with tons of action and fighting and heros being developed. So, give it a go because I think it is a good story in the making.

Kell is a retired warrior of legend, suffering from arthritis and the sluggishness of age, until a bloodthirsty army descends upon his town to lay destruction. He takes up his dreaded butterfly axe named: Ilanna, to do battle. Fleeing an enemy that proves too strong, Kell sets out with some lone survivors, on a journey that becomes nearly forgotten amidst an onslaught of horror and bloodshed that unfolds in their path.

Remic pulls out all the stops to make sure that his characters are challenged. At times you may wonder if he is going down a checklist of torturous torments to visit upon these hapless souls, fleeing for their lives.

For those of iron composure, forging forward anyway, plotlines are often chopped short--bereft of the space they needed to breathe. Some may point to this being a good way to move the story forward without bogging it down, but every climactic moment needs time to build and a moment of silence to appreciate it in full.

Amazingly, the story can be very narrow, despite an invading army and widespread bloodshed. The reader is confined to a small space and just a couple characters for much of the book. The fact that there is a larger conflict going on all around seems to be forgotten and has to be periodically reminded to the characters and the reader.

Inconsistencies crop up, with Kell's single true flaw of age talked up as a problem and then proven time and time again to be mere window dressing. Saark's selfish, hedonistic character was one of the few that seemed to hold true and had the best character arc. The side character of Anukis, with her repugnant suitor Vashell were perhaps the most irritating. Yes, they explain more of the enemy Vachine, and there are probably more important things to come for Anu, but her storyline is so mired in needless conflict that the impact was mostly lost.

Vashell was both horrible, wonderful and crazily erratic. I can see what Remic was trying to do, but I don't think it came across. To be fair, it was an odious task to create one so incredibly conflicted. I wish it had worked. Why Anukis ever gave into him at all is a wonder, and to see her sister turned as well--that was just ridiculous.

The Vachine race was interesting, but I couldn't help but wonder at the clockwork inclusion. It seemed a bit of a stretch and too arbitrary, at times, to truly be a part of the story; as if it were thrown in as an afterthought. I accepted it, but often wondered: Is that really possible? I think Remic brought it all together, later in the story, to make a broader, greater, relevance; but it was less of an "Ah, hah!" moment and more: about time. The same was true for the blood-oil drinking. I wanted to see the purpose, I wanted to see how this gruesome concoction was made, and I just wanted to know...more. Maybe this is a good thing, especially if the next book in the series delivers. Or, perhaps I'm too inquisitive...

I've heard that Remic's writing is reminiscent of his hero David Gemmel. I don't know, because I haven't read any of Gemmel's work (I know. Fifty lashes for me), but he may be channeling a little of George R.R. Martin's special kind of talent. Characters die and go through trials that, I have to admit, I assumed they would have been free of. This ruthlessness is one of the high points of the book as it keeps the reader guessing.

My biggest qualm is what becomes one of the biggest subplots of the book about two-thirds of the way through, when a random appearance of some unruly bandits introduces a problem that requires Kell's attention. The amount of foresight that goes into this random occurrence by the bandits jumps well past the border of reason. These characters were planted without the necessary foreshadowing necessary to make it work and all it seems to be is an anti deus ex machina to up the plot conflict, instead of solving it, and left me with a foul taste.

Would I recommend this book? Ultimately...yes, for one interested in war, monsters and conflict, that doesn't mind a healthy dose of blood, guts and sex covering the whole thing in a viscous mess. I'd give it 3.5 stars, as a book with promise, excitement and something deeper, that just needed a little more time to shine.

Disclosure: this book was provided from the envious collection of "Books Received" by the SF Signal. Thanks Denardo! A free book is not an e-book, but it is as light in the wallet as an e-book is in the hands. This was also the British version, so I got a lot more "s's" than the "z's" I'm used to and a heavy helping of "arse". Would an American version have made a difference? Nah...I don't think so, as a fantasy piece, it was a simple thing to excuse the variations as a part of the language of the world.

[...]

Was there any vetting performed on this book or was a first draft manuscript submitted and published with nary a thought for the editing process? What should be a straightforward fantasy yarn in the Gemmell style reads like a nightmare, or otherwise unintentionally funny, with run-on sentences that seem to go on forever. There is one sentence that is almost an entire page in length. Rather than propelling the story along at breakneck speed, which I assume is what the author intended, this makes for often difficult reading. We have often wildly disparate actions performed by different characters blurring together, and sometimes the perspective shifts from one character to another in the same damn sentence. The plot is serviceable, the characters uniformly dull other than Kell and his sword, but the prose almost killed it for me, alternating between purple prose, weird descriptive elements and awkward phrasings: "the steps spiralled up, wide enough for two men, and with a shaky, flaked, mostly rotted iron handrail the only barrier between the steps and a long fall to hard impact" ... "a fist hit Kell in the ribs, and he hit the ground on the way down" ... "a huge cross-member dropped, clunking against the canker which hit the ground under huge weight, snarling and snapping, and through the falling dust Kell saw Saark, his blade buried deep in the canker's flank and Saark screamed, "The roof's..." etc etc. Forgivable for a first draft, unforgivable for a published work.

PROS:
- ends on a cliffhanger, which is great for anyone who actually enjoyed reading this
- Kell might be a Druss clone, but he manages to carry the story well enough, and he's a likeable enough protagonist
- Kell's sword is probably the best character in the book
- some decent action here and there
- I was able to finish the book, unlike some others I could name

CONS:
- way too many overlong sentences, meaning that the pace, rather than being enhanced, actually suffers as a result
- the dialogue is workmanlike at best
- too much purple prose, and many descriptions that either don't make sense or at the least are stylistically awkward
- an odd mix of Gemmell-inspired action and mech, which doesn't quite work
- too many dull and/or easily interchangeable characters
- ends on a cliffhanger, which for those who struggled through the book is the final spit in the face

SUMMARY:
Stick with Gemmell. This needs a serious overhaul.

Much of this would reflect the review by Munin. I downloaded this for free in-between books and thought I'd give it a chance.
Whereas there are moments of stunning vulgarity that offends me and tempted me to put the book down, those moments did set a certain tone for the author. I found the narrative had good flow and plenty of visceral action.
What the book needs is a heavy polish. The prose is so full of 'like' and 'and' that I began to re-read paragraphs the way I'd prefer them to be. All said, Remic devised a story that I wanted more of, page after page.
Kell is a terrific character. In these days of affordable e-books, I'll read more from Remic and be happy in the end.

This book is not for the prudish or squeamish. It is not Harry Potter.It is Game of Thrones if written by RE Howard. As a big fan of heroic fantasy, most notably David Gemmel and RE Howard, I was pleased with this book. It was action packed and filled with brutal fight scenes. It did hold many similarities to Gemmel's Legend, but the antagonists, the vachine, were something new. The cliff hanger ending only whets my appetite for more and I will be delving into the brutal world of Kell for more encounters.

Gerald L. Black- Author of Chronicles of The Sentient Sword Vol. 1

It's bad. I described reading through this series to be on par with taking a mental beating. The character draws from Druss and Gemmell but that is the extent of it. Andy Remic might not be a bad writer per se', but he's not that good either. Just reading through the novel is painful and trying to keep the story together as well is even more difficult. The plot is extreme to the point of unbelievability and the structure for most of the book is just....off. And then I hear he wants to do 6 more...Ugh, I shudder at the thought. I read through these three to give Remic a fair shake but I am done with him at this point. Continue at your own peril.

This book is painful to read. The species logic is tattered and based on nothing coherent and much of the premise is completely irrational. Having a creature feed on the life force of something that's frozen, dead, and decapitated is outright inane. Having a main character run to exhaustion then run more is just bad story telling. The writing is fair, but not great. If you can put up with the problems, it might be tolerable. I won't be keeping it or buying any more in the series.

I got this because of the 'vampire' heading. It definately is a different twist on the vampire thing altho it did confuse me a bit in the beginning. But soon it had me in its grip the next two of the trilogy. I could not put it down. Take the chance and go for it.